Never too early (or late?) to start planting. A few weeks back I browsed my favourite web seed shop and couldn’t help ordering a bunch of new chillies. Thought I would have to wait until january to plant them but then found a video online where some guy plants chillies now, trims the bushes and by spring the plants look amazing. So yesterday I planted all my new seeds and for the first time also used Perlite. Exciting to see the results!

Only Hyppeln left and I’ve been to all the islands! We took the moped to Källö-Knippla today. You go across Öckerö and Hälsö, then a few minutes with a small car-ferry. I learnt from our last trip to another island to check when the next ferry back would be, an hour and a half, before exploring the surroundings. There’s a food store, pizzeria(only open at weekends), restaurants and bed&breakfast. We bought some “fika” and found a small beach hidden away from the wind. Took the moped two circles around the island and then waited for the ferry back(and realising that the food shop closes for three hours in the middle of the day). I think this is my new favourite island. 337 people live at Knippla sadly the population is declining, it’s almost halved since the sixties. Most of the houses are old like ours and the streets are narrow with steep hills. All in all very cosy and we will definitely go back on a hotter day(probably next summer)!

Very windy! Being sensible after my cold I only followed the kids down the beach and resisted going in the water. Some stunning views though! Hönö is always beautiful, all seasons according to me, but starting to understand the guy I spoke to shortly after moving out. I said -Oh how gorgeous and calm it was this morning! He muttered grumpily under his breath -Yeah and you can count those days on five fingers, the ##**#”*wind is always whipping the island. I love it though, still or stormy.

Finally the one good thing about the weather turning is finding the will to go back into the darkroom. Fighting the mother of all colds I made it down the dark and did some lith-printing. Only chicken pics today but plenty more to come!

The hens are growing and my daughter is doing a pretty good job with taming them. Esme, Scruffy, Vera and Otilia still club the cherry tree every evening and I have to pluck them down, screeching and flapping. They are so much fun though. Today I spent ages just watching them and Oggy the cat lounging in the garden. In the afternoon the weather turned. Temperature is dropping and one is reminded of end of summer. Hope it is too early yet. One thing I’m happy about is bringing my children up a little crazy. I had promised them to go swimming so in the afternoon even when it started to piss down, they bullied me to go down the beach. The water is still lovely and we stayed in until we started shaking with goosebumps. The rain was actually painful on the way back but it only made the warm clothes and hot chocolate even nicer!